Justice Department officials accused the nonprofit challenging President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome” in a court filing containing multiple randomly capitalized words and exclamation points.
The government’s motion, submitted in Washington federal court just before midnight Monday, asks a Washington federal judge to dissolve his own court ruling against the ballroom project, in light of Saturday’s attempted attack at a hotel gala honoring the press that Trump attended.
The nine-page brief adopts a tone and grammatical style that recalls Trump’s own writing style on social media and is unusual for a federal government brief. It is signed by three political appointees, and no career attorneys.
The brief opens by saying that the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, the nonprofit that filed the lawsuit, has “a beautiful name, but even their name is FAKE because when they add the words ‘in the United States’ to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, it makes it sound like a Governmental Agency, which it is not.”
“They are very bad for our Country. They stop many projects that are worthy, and hurt many others,” the officials wrote about the nonprofit.
The department lawyers also called out the National Trust’s lawyer Gregory Craig of Foley Hoag LLP, former White House counsel during the Obama administration, as “the lawyer for Barack Hussein Obama.”
And they used superlative language to praise both Trump and the project.
“If any other President had the ability, foresight, or talents necessary, to build this ballroom, which will be one of the greatest, safest, and most secure structures of its kind anywhere in the World, there would never have been a lawsuit,” they wrote. “But, because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t, especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed. Again, it’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
The brief was signed by Stanley Woodward, currently serving as third-highest ranking official at the Justice Department. Acting attorney general Todd Blanche and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter also appear on the filing.
Monday night’s filing represents the latest development in the Trump administration’s efforts to frame Saturday’s security incident as demonstrating that a new White House ballroom is essential for national security.
Cole Allen, 31, was charged in federal court earlier Monday with attempting to kill Trump and other gun offenses, following an incident outside of the White House Correspondents’ Association’s annual dinner on Saturday at a Washington hotel.
The administration is currently appealing a ruling by Senior Judge Richard Leon of the US District Court for the District of Columbia, who found that Trump didn’t have authority to tear down the East Wing and build a new structure on White House grounds.
Leon also rejected arguments by the administration, which predate Saturday’s attack, that the entire ballroom is necessary for security. The judge instead carved out a more narrow exception for below-ground security construction work.
The appeals court has lifted Leon’s ruling while the government appeals, allowing construction to continue, and a panel of appellate judges will hear arguments in the case in June.
Brett Shumate, the political appointee leading the Justice Department’s civil division, demanded Sunday that the National Trust agree to drop its case after the gala attack, but the nonprofit has refused to do so.
Craig, the nonprofit’s lawyer, disputed that the lawsuit risks the president’s safety and told Shumate that “nothing prevents” the administration from asking Congress to approve the project, as Leon found was required.
The ballroom, and other security facilities included in the project, “are a single integrated, complex unit that is vital for the National Security of the United States,” the Justice Department lawyers argued in its Monday motion to dissolve Leon’s injunction.
They also claimed the injunction has stalled the project, even though the court order has not taken effect.
“This Court should immediately issue an indicative ruling that it will dissolve the injunction, and put an end to this frivolous lawsuit, which greatly endangers the lives of all Presidents, current and future,” they wrote.
The case is National Trust for Historic Preservation v. NPS, D.D.C., No. 1:25-cv-04316, motion filed 4/27/26.
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